Brendan Roberts

 

TT Circuit Assen (Holland), Sunday 27 April 2008 : an unlucky race day for the Ducati Xerox Junior Team. Brendan Roberts fell during the fifth lap in which he was fighting against the leading pack while Domenico Colucci finished in eleventh place, taking home his first championship points of the season.

Brendan, caught up in a battle fraught with nervous tension, demonstrated his ambition by fighting from the start against race leaders Berger, Pirro and Corti. A few small errors committed by more than one of the front-running riders meant that the advantage changed hands several times. Under pressure from Simeon, Brendan pushed hard on the fast straight and then opened the gas too soon through one of the last curves. Losing the rear, the young Australian came off the track and was unable to complete the race.

BRENDAN ROBERTS – “In the first stages of the race we were all on edge. As a group we were entering corners quite slowly and so it was tricky but I felt I had the situation under control. I was sure I was able to fight for the win even though I lost traction a couple of times. Simeon was very close and so I pushed hard through one of the wide left-hand curves only to find that when I opened the gas again I came off track at high speed. Luckily we limited the damage in the sense that my main rivals didn’t finish either. The championship is still wide open and we will do all we can to get back on track so to speak at Monza.”

A difficult race for Domenico Colucci who failed to find the right feeling with the bike this weekend. Starting from further back on the grid he was able to make up a good number of positions to take a final eleventh place.

DOMENICO COLUCCI – “I want to put this weekend behind me as I wasn’t able to feel comfortable with the track or with the bike. In addition I had to visit the Medical Centre to take some painkillers for a problem with my hand. I tried to catch up but starting from so far back I was only able to do so much. One consolation is that I was able to take my first championship points of 2008.”

Results – 1.M.Berger (Honda) in 22’24’’450 with an average speed of 158,559 km/h; 2.M.Pirro (Yamaha) 0’’904; 3.X.Simeon (Suzuki) 2’’848; 4.A.Polita (Ducati) 4’’811; 5.A.Antonelli (Honda) 5’’481….11.Domenico Colucci (Ducati 1098 R Xerox Junior Team) 19’’898…

Championship standings after 2 rounds - 1.Maxime Berger 34 points; 2.X.Simeon 32; 3.M.Pirro 30; 4.D.Giugliano 28; 5.A.Polita 26; 6.Brendan Roberts 25…..16.Domenico Colucci 5….

This entry was posted on Sunday, April 27th, 2008 at 7:07 pm and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.